January 6

Trump Tweets About Mike Pence's Betrayal While His Supporters Force the V.P. To Evacuate the Capitol

Pence had been presiding over the tally of Electoral College votes before rioters broke into the Capitol Building, forcing him to flee.

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reason-pence3 | Jim LoScalzo - Pool via CNP/picture alliance / Consolidated News Photos/Newscom
(Jim LoScalzo - Pool via CNP/picture alliance / Consolidated News Photos/Newscom)

Currently, right-wing supporters of President Donald Trump are storming the U.S. capitol building in an effort to stop Congress tallying Electoral College votes that will deliver the presidency to Joe Biden. The ever-gracious Trump has decided to use this opportunity to attack Vice President Mike Pence for not doing that job for them.

"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify," said Trump on Twitter. "USA demands the truth!"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346900434540240897

That tweet came roughly 10 minutes after it was reported that Pence had been escorted off the Senate floor—where he was presiding of the electoral college tally—in response to aforementioned protesters breaking through police lines and entering the Capitol.

That tweet also comes a day after Pence told Trump, per reporting from The New York Times, that he did not have the power to unilaterally reject electoral votes for Joe Biden, even though the vice president did promise to keep studying the issue of voter fraud.

Pence's mealy-mouthed resistance to Trump's demands was always going to provoke condemnation from the president, as Reason's Jacob Sullum presciently noted yesterday.

"In the end, Pence will be forced to declare Biden the next president of the United States, at which point Trump, being Trump, might very well turn against him, as he has when other loyal allies dared to defy his whims," wrote Sullum.

Few could have predicted Trump's turn on Pence would come right as the vice president was fleeing from rioters who were more willing to do Trump's dirty work for him.

In a bit of surreal irony, one such rioter who'd made it into the Senate chamber took up Pence's seat and declared Trump to be the actual winner of the presidential election.

Pence supported Trump right until the very end. It appears that wasn't long enough.